Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Prunes - Harvest Time Again


I have always enjoyed prunes. Sunsweet bags were sweet as candy and one of my favorite dried fruits growing up. So when it is the day to harvest prunes, you better believe I walked down with the kids to watch.

Now, don't quibble over terminology. These are prunes... prune trees grow prunes. Not plums. Plums are far different... and so are dried plums. When these gorgeous fruit are dried we still call them prunes.


Now, if you haven't seen a prune harvest you are in for a real treat. It is like nothing I have ever watched before. This year the trees were loaded down with ripe fruit. Several of the trees already broke under the weight. It is an older orchard but this year proved it can still produce.


There were already many littered on the ground. The local wildlife takes advantage of the bounty and have left evidence of it being a busy place.


There are two parts to picking. Two machines with two separate drivers and other workers to help out. On the right is the shaker. That arm comes out and goes around the trunk of the tree. The driver is (semi-) protected by a slanted platform that extends out to the trunk when in place. As the machine shakes the tree, the prunes fall and roll down into the receiver machine.


On the left is the receiver. It catches the fruit and rolls it down the conveyor and up and into the bin.


My husband was driving the machine on the left and two men were at the bin in the back to help pick out twigs and excess leaves. It is impressive to watch the prunes rain down onto the machines.


When the bins were full, they were put on the back of the semi-truck and a new bin was brought to fill.


So many bins!

I love to eat them raw off the tree, but drying really concentrates the sugars and flavor. I can't wait to see these prunes make their way back to our market, dried and packaged.

The kids had a blast watching how everything worked. Have you ever had the chance to watch something be harvested? What would you like to see?

Andrea
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13 comments:

  1. I love how you put that the driver is "semi-protected"...poor thing probably gets whacked in the head a lot. I wondered how all the fruit was picked in a time efficient manner! Thanks!

    Dawn
    www.cheapisthenewclassy.com

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  2. Yum, yum, yum! What a great detailed account of how these are harvested!
    Blessings!

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  3. Loved learning about how they are harvested. Maybe I should give them another try!

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  4. Great photos! I like seeing how corn and apples are harvested.

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  5. Now that is really cool! I had no idea how prunes were harvested! Definitely much better than hand picking each one. I would love to see this in person!

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  6. Holly molly - that's how it's done??? I was trying to think what they were before I looked at your words....thought for a moment they were blueberries. This is really cool. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. I have seen this done to walnut trees. It is amazing hot they can shake a tree to get the ripe fruit off of it and not damage or bruise it.

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  8. This is so neat! I've never seen any fruit be harvested. It has to be really interesting to see it in person.

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  9. What a blessing to have fresh prunes, I'm sure they taste so good.

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  10. I had no idea that was how they picked prunes! I love seeing the behind the scenes views of items we take for granted!

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  11. I love this! I'm not a farm girl, but your posts make me want to jump ship and start a farm. So many cool experiences for your family!

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  12. How fun. I've never seen a prune farm before. Well, I've never seen any kind of fruit harvested like that before. Very cool!

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  13. These prunes look wonderful and delicious and of course colorful. This was very interesting to view. I feel like getting some now!
    twinkle at optonline dot net

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